Malware is short for malicious software and is used as a term to refer to any software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. Malware can include computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, adware, spyware and any other malicious and unwanted software. Any client device, such as a desktop personal computer (PC), laptop, tablet or mobile phone, can be at risk from malware.
Infection of a device by malware may not be detected immediately as many users do not use anti-virus software to detect and possibly remove malware on their devices. Furthermore, even if a user does make use of anti-virus software there is still a possibility that the malware is not known to the anti-virus software and therefore the software will not detect infection of a computer system.
During the time between infection of a device by malware and its detection and removal malware present on the device is able to perform actions to infiltrate or damage the device without the user's knowledge. Hence, it is important that not only is the user able to remove malware from a device they are able to mitigate any damage caused by the malware.